Sunday, November 6, 2011

Provo Halloween Half Marathon

I finally ran in my first Half Marathon! The race was from Aspen Grove down Provo Canyon to the Riverwoods mall. Now that the soreness has worn off I'm feeling pretty good about doing it. I have been wanting to do this half for the last couple years but got a knee injury 2 years ago and didn't have time to train last year. Since we are moving next month I figured this was my last chance. My little sister Jamie came up and ran it with me so that helped motivate me to do it no matter what. I will say though that the run was great but the experience as a whole was not quite up to my expectations. We picked up our race bib and t-shirt the day before at the University Mall and the line seriously went the whole length of the mall. It took forever!! From what I heard, previous years were not like that so I know this was not normal. Then the next morning they said to be to the buses between 530 and 6 so Jamie and I showed up at 550 and waited until after 7 to get on a bus! Now this normally wouldn't be such an issue but it was 30 degrees outside, and we only had a light jacket on. Not ideal! I had a cold for a few days after the race which was not fun at all. But, all those angry feelings aside, I am glad I finally did it! I ran it in 2:12! I was feeling pretty good about about that time because I really didn't train a ton for it. I have been extremely busy with school so I really only ran long runs in the few weekends before the race. I think if I ever do another race I will make training a higher priority. I had it built into my head that it was all downhill so it would be easy, and it was not easy haha. Around mile 9 my body started hurting a ton from the steep downhill from the first 5 miles. At mile 11 I was pleasantly surprised when Trent and my parents were waiting to see Jamie and me. It helps a lot to have such great support. I felt a little more energized at that point and felt to motivation to finish strong.

Trent took this picture at mile 11 when they surprised us!

This is a picture of my good friend Janae from Hungry Runner Girl, me and my sister Jamie.